We are YOUNG

[clover]

Totally agreed. People are falling all over themselves annointing a questionable shooter star status.

Bradley's career path is encouraging, but he is in no way at "building block" status at this point.

See the splits I posted.  Bradley shot 50% from the floor, 46% from 3, and 80% from the FT line in the 28 games he started.  Saying he is a questionable shooter is simply, factually, wrong.

28 games in not enough to say "this is who he will be for his career"

  But it's too many games in a young player's first year as a rotation player to dismiss the likelihood that he will. He's no lock, but I wouldn't bet the farm on his reverting back either.

The Celtics can't go into the offseason looking at players outside of Rondo as building blocks.  There could be outside chances one of them may be a fringe star, but just as good of a chance that they will be out of the league in 3 years.

  I don't think that they can pencil him in as a building block yet, but if they're trying to reload around PP/KG/Rondo I think they can pencil him in as the starting sg that *could* turn into a building block.

Yep, if KG's back Danny's big focus is the immediate and next-generation 4 and the next-generation 3 and 5.  (Plus the immediate 3 if he can move Pierce for a good deal.)

[action781]

so lets set this world on fiiiirrrrrrrreeee we can glow brighterrrrrrr

[Celtics18]

. . . heartache to heartache we stand, no promises, no demands.  Love is a battlefield.

[pearljammer10]

there might be young bodies on our roster but they are just that...bodies. the guys that carry the biggest load (aside from rondo) are all past their primes. there is only so long you can have for one, two, and three options past their primes and still expect to win.

[Brendan]

Might be a definition thing...

you have different kinds of building blocks:

guys that can be best player on a championship team level... KG may still be there, Rondo might be there - but we know Pierce and Allen just don't have that anymore. None of the "young" guys - including AB, Steisma, and BB will ever have it IMO.

guys that can be starters / 6th men on championship team... PP and Ray are still there. I think Bass is too. AB looked like he was at end of season - lets see how he comes back from injury.

guys that can be in rotation on championship team... you could argue that any of the four above should be here and convince me. I dunno about Wilcox or Green as good enough to be here, Pietrus isn't.

guys that can give you depth on champ team... I'd put Pietrus here. Steisma is fine for a 3rd string center or 4th big last man in rotation, first guy on the depth tier.


So the question becomes - are KG and Rondo (KJ and Hondo) enough best guy talent? If not then Danny is left seeing if there is any way to get that talent this year. If not then he might as well roll the dice for another year and try and get that talent in 2013. This is the position I think the C's are in now. Their top two are probably NOT good enough to beat the best teams most of the time, but maybe 15% of the time they can pull that upset.

That being the case - I think the C's need to add starting / 6th man level building blocks for next year (a better third big and better third wing being the main needs) without blowing up cap space for ability to add a best player on championship team type player later on.

That means they probably end up running back something like this team with one or two small adjustments, since its hard to get even a good wing or big without blowing your long term cap space. I'm OK with that.

[mctyson]

Might be a definition thing...

you have different kinds of building blocks:

And that is really what I am trying to communicate here.  Yes in the NBA you win with stars.  We have one, with Rondo.  If KG comes back for 1 more year and does what he did this year, we have 2.  Pierce still shows flashes of that elite player, so we can say we have 2.5 stars. 

But as we found out this year we need the non-stars too, and we actually have legitimate starters and bench rotation players that are young and in their primes, if not younger.

I am excited for our future.  I think JJJ will make a leap next year, we will see how big.  I think Moore can be our backup PG if he can play defense like Dooling (which he might not do, but let's see.) 

If he is healthy I expect big things from Jeff Green - he might disappoint us but Danny and Doc obviously see something in him.  I found it interesting that Doc mentioned not having Jeff Green first thing when asked about the course of this season after Game 7, because he knows JG's ability.

I think Bass will be back and give us 12 and 6 again.

Then factor in our 2 1st rounders, or whatever we get if we trade them, and that's even more potential.

This may be an optimistic outlook, but we were 8 minutes away from the NBA Finals against the overwhelming favorite who had their whole roster available.  I think we have a great shot to get back their again next year.

[CFAN38]

guys that can be in rotation on championship team... you could argue that any of the four above should be here and convince me. I dunno about Wilcox or Green as good enough to be here, Pietrus isn't.

To say that Jeff Green can't at least be rotational player on a championship team is crazy to me? If healthy he is a 26 year old 6'9 7'2 wingspan very athletic SF who averaged 16pts 6rb per game in his last year at OKC. How much better is Deng then a healthy J Green? Is Thabo Sefolosha better then J Green?

I fully expect Green and AB to be major contributors for many years. RR has shown that he can be the best player on a contending team. If AB and Green both reach there potential and Danny can inject an allstar caliber 4/5 and an athletic 2/3 scoring 6th man then the Cs should stay in the elite ranks in the east.